This article is a review of RUROUNI KENSHIN 3: THE LEGEND ENDS.

The RUROUNI KENSHIN trilogy has followed THE MATRIX franchise trajectory, squandering huge potential for a damp squib of an ending. Technically so much is here: Frenetic action choreography, acting conviction, stylish costumes and even more stylish haircuts. Part 2, KYOTO INFERNO, left us on a knife-edge, awaiting the climax; but THE LEGEND ENDS trails off half-heartedly and nonsensically.

Hero Kenshin dove into a choppy sea after his love, Kaoru Kamiya (Emi Takei), as the ironclad battleship, run by renegade rebel, Makato Shishio (Tatsuya Fujiwara), headed for Tokyo to end the newly birthed Meiji government. Left anticipating, the third and final chapter eases us in. Bodies strewn, a young boy, Shinta (Nayuta Fukuzaki), is burying them singlehandedly. Walking in on something a young person should never have to do, Seijuro Hiko (LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON’s Fukuyama) admires Shinta’s guts and tenacity. Seijuro, agreeing to train the youngster to be a sword warrior, renames him “Kenshin” – thus erasing his past and resetting his future.

Awakening after being washed up on a beach, Kenshin finds himself gratingly coincidentally at his former master’s abode. Surface irritability at his student’s direction in life, there is an unuttered (one of the positives of the series – the confidence to not obviously articulate) respect for his authenticity as a human being. Defeated by Shishio’s speedy lieutenant, Sojiro Seta (Ryunisuke Kamiki), Kenshin needs Seijuro to complete the final element of his education a decade-and-a-half on: To be taught the “ultimate technique” of their High Heaven style. Cue montage. Knowing what martial arts fans want, the filmmakers look to satisfy. KYOTO INFERNO had the lead acquire a new weapon, the last back-blade sword. THE LEGEND ENDS gives the audience the training sequence. At once these staples are tired, yet somehow welcome – perhaps because these movies try to inject freshness into the ronin subgenre.

What happened to the female roles? There was Makimachi Misao (Tao Tsuchiya), a female ninja thief, and of course fencing instructor Kaoru. They, and doctor beauty, Megumi Takani (Yû Aoi), just pine for their men, not contributing to the mayhem in a compelling fashion. Any kind of subtext – imperialism, war, politicking – dissipates too.

Proceedings are a weird mixture of lethargic pacing, taking an age to reach the climax, and also rushed, zooming about Japan incoherently. All those baddies arrayed against Kenshin - Seta, Aoshi Sinomori (Yusuke Iseya), the “Ten Swords” – are unsatisfyingly dealt with. By the finale, there is a cinema reversal, the good guys outnumber the bad (not seen since LETHAL WEAPON 4?). Even as a battering ensues, it is too little too late. THE RAID 2 this ain’t.

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